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The Philadelphia Phillies suffered a shocking loss to the roster last week and it has motivated some even more surprising wins.
After franchise ace Zack Wheeler left the team following a blood-clot diagnosis last Saturday, the Phillies have rattled off four straight wins, including a sweep of the Seattle Mariners that featured historically great offensive and pitching production.
Of course, the team would prefer to have Wheeler healthy and productive at the top of their rotation, particularly with the playoffs approaching. But suffering the loss has apparently motivated the Phillies in a strange way.
“It’s as if subtracting the team’s best player somehow sobered the roster,” Marcus Hayes wrote for The Philadelphia Inquirer. “No one knows what Wheeler’s future will be. His present situation gave the Phillies a reason to rally. … They know Wheels is watching.”
After undergoing a successful procedure to remove the clot, it’s still possible that Wheeler will return to the mound this season. But whether or not he returns, it was a reminder to his teammates that the opportunity to play professional baseball is not one that should be taken for granted.
Phillies shortstop Trea Turner, who has 21 hits in his last seven games, said that the team had been playing pretty well before Wheeler’s diagnosis but noted that losing the pitcher might have propelled the recent streak.
“I honestly feel like we’ve been playing like this for a little bit,” Turner said, per Hayes. “I also think losing a guy like that’s really big and can bring you together.”
As the Phillies look to ride their surge deep into the postseason, there will almost surely come a moment or two where they miss their franchise ace. But if the team can keep playing like this without Wheeler, perhaps there can be some surprising addition by subtraction for the rest of the season.
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